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Travel Journal - Dame Collection

Good morning, Crafters! This is Gloria Stengel with you again. I have made a travel journal to share with you today. This is only my second time making this style of journal. I have learned a few things since my last attempt, but I still have a few "bugs" to work out!

I created my journal 8" tall, 4" wide, with a 1 1/4" spine. I used the BEAUTIFUL Dame Collection for this project. This collection has a Paris theme that works so well for a travel journal.

I created three signatures (which is fancy way of saying a section of paper). Each signature has blank paper and fun ephemera, plus a cover. That is what I love about this style and size of journal. You can get a lot of pages into it and it's easy to reload more blank paper!

I used an elastic band to keep the book closed. I wanted this book to be user-friendly. That means it has a flat cover and an easy to open closure!Here is a little tutorial on how I made my book.Cut two pieces of chipboard to 8" x 4" for the covers. Then cut a spine piece to 8" x 1 1/4". Use a hole punch to punch three holes in the top and bottom of the spine. (When you make yours, try to get your holes straight instead of wonky like mine!) These holes are for threading your elastic or twine to hold the signatures into the book.

Cut dark brown cardstock to 10 1/2" x 12". Attach the chipboard to the center of the cardstock so that you have a 1/8" gap between the cover pieces and the spine. Angle the corners of the cardstock and attach double-sided adhesive to the tabs. Mark your holes. I used a Fiskars punch to re-punch the binding holes. This type of punch can go anywhere and can punch through even very thick items. I made sure to punch the holes any time I covered them with paper, so that I would not "lose" them!

Flip your book over and add paper to the front covers and the spine. I used Dame Three for the front cover and then Dame One for the spine and back cover. Now, you will need some elastic twine to thread through your holes. I have used regular twine in the past, but the elastic is stretchy, so it works a bit better.

Thread your twine through the holes in a pattern that you like. Make sure you have one "string" for each hole. Each signature will slip under one of the strings of twine.

This is what my spine looked like after I added the elastic twine. Some people like to have the three strings showing on the spine also because it is a great way to add beads and such to the spine. I was keeping my book more simple, so I threaded the twine to only have the "stitches" showing. I wanted to add some eyelets to the tholes, but I used SUPER thick chipboard and none of my eyelets were long enough!

I added some pockets to the inside covers of my journal. You can add any style of pocket you wish, or add none at all.

I created three covers for my signatures by cutting the decorative paper to 7" x 7 1/2". I then folded each piece in half to make 7" x 3 3/4" covers. I cut the signature covers slightly wider than the inside pages.For the blank inside I used printer paper for the notebooks. I cut each page to 7" tall by slightly smaller than 7 1/2" wide and folded them all in half.I placed a few sheets of the blank paper into a decorative paper cover and then slipped it under one of the strings in the journal cover. Since I added three strings, I can add three signatures. For my signature covers I used Dame Seven, Dame Four, and Dame 5. I then added some of the ephemera cards from Dame Seven and Dame Eight, as well as some of the Stickers and Components die cuts.So see all of the inside pages, view the video below.

I cut a piece of the same elastic twine that I used for my signatures to use for a closure. I needed about 8" of the twine, which I knotted together. Now it can just wrap over the book. When the book is in use, I can just wrap the twine over my wrist to keep it safe.